PLEASANTON — Crest High’s boys opened play in the Pleasanton Blu-Jay Mid-Season Tournament in blistering fashion Tuesday, racing to a 21-2 lead over host Pleasanton in what wound up a 58-24 win.
Behind the hot outside shooting of Kyle Hammond, Crest kept up its torrid play, leading 34-6 at the break and 48-17 after three quarters.
The key, according to Lancer head coach Travis Hermreck, was Crest’s ability to attack Pleasanton’s defense, a box-and-one set on slowing Hammond.
“But the rest of our guys stepped up and made them get out of the box- and-one,” Hermreck said. “Defensively we played pretty well. We had a few lapses we need to get cleaned up, but for the most part, I was very happy with how we played.
Hammond drained five of Crest’s nine three-pointers and scored 21 points. Jordan Morton added nine. Dexter Wiley and Luke Decker scored seven apiece.
Baker Inman’s six points led Pleasanton.
TUESDAY’S opening round most assuredly was decided at the free throw line for Humboldt High’s boys.
The Cubs shot an ice-cold 10 of 25 from the line, while their opponents from Jayhawk-Linn went 26 of 44.
The decided advantage converted into a 50-45 loss for Humboldt.
Humboldt raced out to a 16-8 lead after one quarter, before foul trouble took its toll. Jayhawk-Linn out-scored Humboldt 11-8 in the second quarter and 13-6 in the third to take a 32-30 lead.
The game was nip-and-tuck down the stretch, but Humboldt came up empty on too many free throw attempts, head coach David Taylor said.
“We made some silly mistakes, too,” he said.
Noah Thornbrugh led Humboldt with 24 points and 14 rebounds.
“Noah played well off the blocks and scored from his rebounds,” Taylor said.
Trey Johnson had five assists. Derrik McCall had two steals.
Jake Rowe and Ben Rowe led Jayhawk-Linn with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
IN A TWO-MAN scoring battle, Prairie View High’s Taylor Brown scored two points fewer than Uniontown High’s Brenton Esslinger. But the Vikings saw eight players score points, while Uniontown had only four reach the scoring column in Prairie View’s 50-46 victory.
The game was close throughout. Uniontown led 11-7 after one period. Prairie View led 21-19 at the break. The Buffalos were on top 37-30 after three periods.
Esslinger scored 20 points for Uniontown, followed by Zach Travis with 16. Seth Sympson scored eight.
Brown scored 18 to pace the Buffalos. While he was the only Prairie View player in double figures, two others scored eight.
THURSDAY’S round has Crest in the championship bracket against Jayhawk-Linn. On the consolation side, Uniontown takes on Altoona-Midway and Humboldt plays Pleasanton.
Times will be announced later today.
Placing games are Saturday.
Crest (21-13-14-10—58) (FG/3-pt): Ellis 2-0-0-4, Wiley 3-1-2-7, Morton 0/3-0-2-9, Hammond 1/5-4-2-21, Brallier 2-0-0-4, Decker 2/1-0-0-7, Bowen 0-3-0-3, Ellis 1-0-0-2, Ramsey 0-1-0-1. TOTALS: 11/9-9-6-58.
Pleasanton (2-4-11-7—24) (FG/3-pt): Morrisey 0/1-0-0-3, Schoenhals 0-0-2-0, G. Coffman 1-0-0-2, Hein 1-1-3-3, Schmidt 0/1-0-2-3, Marshall 1-0-0-2, P. Coffman 2-1-0-5, Inman 2-2-2-6. TOTALS: 7/2-4-12-24.
Humboldt (16-8-6-15—45) (FG/3-pt): McNutt 0/1-2-5-5, McCall 2-1-5-5, N. Wiltse 1-1-2-3, Crawford 1-1-3-3, Johnson 0-1-5-1, C. Wiltse 0-0-1-0, Nickell 1-2-1-4, Thornbrugh 11-2-3-24. TOTALS: 16/1-10-28-45.
Jayhawk-Linn (8-11-13-18—50) (FG/3-pt): J. Rowe 1-9-2-11, B. Rowe 0/2-4-5-10, Sunderland 2-5-3-9, Kellerman 3-0-5-6, Coleman 2-2-3-6, Gabbert 1-4-2-6, Ligman 0-2-4-2. TOTALS: 9/2-26-24-50.
Uniontown (11-8-11-16—46) (FG/3-pt): Ramsey 1-0-1-2, Travis 2/1-9-1-16, Wiley 0-0-1-0,Kuns 0-0-4-9, Ellinburg 0-0-5-0, Labbe 0-0-1-0, Esslinger 9-2-1-20, Sympson 4-0-2-8. TOTALS: 16/1-11-16-46.
Prairie View (7-14-16-13—50) (FG/3-pt): Stillians 0-0-1-0, Brown 5/2-2-3, 18, Hines 0-2-4-2, Craig 1-0-0-2, Hoyd 2-4-3-8, Watson 3-2-2-8, Feldman 0-0-1-0, Miller 1/1-1-1-6, Peine 2-0-2-4, Smith 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 15/3-11-19-50.
